


ketchup crown.

by leothequeenn



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: #quarantine vibes ya know, Alternate Universe - College/University, Crushes, Cuddling, First Kiss, Fluff, Hair Dye, Inside jokes, Lowercase, M/M, basically mingi dyes san's hair at 1 am, choi san is a brat, lapslock, small mentions of like two kinks but theyre jokes...... unless? [eyes emojis], wave era sangi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23686675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: san wants to go red again - and with his blond hair, it should just be easy to dye it with box dye. besides, he’s bored, and snatches a box from the closet that he knows is wooyoung’s (whoops) and it’s late. luckily, mingi is up and he recruits him to help.
Relationships: Choi San/Song Mingi, mentions of yeosang/yunho
Comments: 8
Kudos: 96





	ketchup crown.

**Author's Note:**

> hi hello!! i haven’t written anything in a long time, sorry!! it's like i'll write something and not finish it and my brain's like "here's a new idea" except it's been doing this for months. anyways, i actually ended up dying my hair red, but i had also dyed my hair black like four months ago and so now only my roots along with the top of my head are red. oof.
> 
> also i've been writing a lot in lowercase so this is all in lowercase.

san was so fucking bored.

it was nearing one AM and despite having nothing to do tomorrow, he couldn’t find it in himself to finally shut the lights off and sleep - and scrolling through instagram and twitter had gotten predictable as he kept switching between the apps, hoping for something to be useful. maybe he needed to get up and exercise, dance - or maybe go out for a walk, or _something_ that didn’t involve sitting on his bed and wasting his phone’s battery with nothing to do.

with pent-up energy, he eventually huffed and pushed himself up off of his bed, striding across the room and walking outside quietly, not to disturb the overall feeling of the dorm. he expected silence (it was very late, after all) but he could hear the sounds of a video playing downstairs. he ignored it for now and found himself wandering into the one of the two bathrooms him and the others share. maybe he could do something with his hair, like straighten half of it before he ultimately decided he was tired of doing it. as he looked in the small storage closet inside of the bathroom, he didn’t find the straightener -- san suspects maybe hongjoong had it and forgot to put it back -- but instead found a box, pushed in the back behind the hair gels and soaps. he dug a little through the bottles but eventually grabbed the box and pulled it out, holding on to the red hair dye that wooyoung was going to use a month ago but never did since he went dark instead.

and san grinned wickedly, knowing _exactly_ what to do.

he stepped back out of the bathroom, the noise he heard earlier still there and curiously, he headed toward it. he wanted to know who it was and honestly, if he was going to dye his hair, he’d want some company since the process wasn’t really that exciting. 

as he crept closer, stepping down on the first step, he noticed the sound wasn’t coming from the television, it was far too quiet for that, so that meant someone must be up watching a video on their phone, right? he started to head down the stairs, trying his best to avoid the noisiest steps, in case the other person was actually asleep and left their phone on.

he finally got to the landing of the stairs, and despite being in the dark, he could see the form of mingi on the couch, his phone unlocked and shining awfully too bright on his face. 

he almost thought that he was asleep, his phone’s light casting weird shadows and making it hard to distinguish if he was awake, but was caught wildly off-guard when mingi moved to pause his video and looked up, muttering out, “oh, hey.”

“I thought you were asleep,” san said, before asking, “what are you doing up?”

“I couldn’t get comfortable, so I went downstairs,” he answered. “what about you, sannie?”

(god, he loved that nickname mingi used for him.)

now knowing it was mingi who was up, he had changed his plan of doing his hair himself. “will you help me with this?” san asked sweetly, holding the box out with a grin on his face. he knew that he could definitely dye his hair on his own, but honestly he’d love it if he would do it instead. mingi turned on his phone’s flashlight, and san squinted at the light being flashed onto him.

“oh, um.” mingi mumbled, looking at the hair dye before looking back up at san, “i’ve never dyed someone else’s hair before.”

“min, it’s one am. i don’t really care how it turns out and i’m sure you’ll do fine.” 

that wasn’t very promising, and if mingi were to miss a spot, it’d be pretty obvious in san’s honey blond hair, but he was sure he could pick up another box of dye from the store in the morning and easily fix it himself. 

mingi arched an eyebrow. “shouldn’t you wait until the morning then?”

and honestly, he could (and he probably should, anyways) -- but what was the fun in that? san took a step forward, moving to sit by him on the couch. he cuddled up to him, knowing that would definitely help, and he pouted. “come on, please? i’m bored and i need help doing this. you’ll be fine!”

(that was an obvious lie, san had dyed his hair before by himself multiple times and definitely didn’t need help at all - and mingi knew that - but it was better than saying _please keep me company because i like you and i don’t want to do this alone when we’re both up and bored_.)

but fortunately, mingi couldn’t ever say no to san’s pout. “okay, fine.”

“thank you, minmin,” san grinned at him, taking a hold of his hand and pulling him up to his feet.

* * *

“wait, are you wearing my shirt?” mingi asked when they got into the bathroom, just as san was turning on the light. san simply nodded, setting the box of dye down on the countertop. “can you change? i don’t wanna get dye on this one.”

“you _won’t_ ,” san turned toward him and reached forward to poke his nose, “it’ll be fine. besides, i have faith that you wouldn’t fuck it up -- and if you do, then it’ll be like… a good memory of you dyeing my hair at one in the morning. it’ll be sweet. besides, it’s really comfortable.”

mingi rolled his eyes, annoyed at his answer despite a bit of a blush creeping up onto his cheeks. san pretended not to notice. mingi seemingly understood that san was definitely not going to change his shirt, before a more prevalent question came to his mind and san could almost see the lightbulb appear above his head. “hang on, why did you even have it in the first place?”

san paused. he debated lying about it, but he also figured the truth probably wouldn’t sound that bad, so he just shrugged and said, “i think i might’ve snatched it when you were on vacation with your parents.”

he grinned. “why?”

“because i missed you,” san said bashfully, turning away from him as he started to open the box, a bit of a blush forming on his cheeks.

“that’s so cute,” mingi cooed at him, leaning in to hug him.

san whined. “now, can we start, please?” 

“it’s so cute that it almost forgives the fact that i’m most likely going to get dye on this shirt now.” mingi said, but he nodded his head and stepped away from him. he then took the opened box from where it sat after being opened and starting digging through it to get the gloves, the bottles and the instructions out. san started to read off what to do, his face still red, pointing to each bottle, and mingi - after getting the gloves on - started to unscrew the top off the applicator bottle to put the color booster and other small packets of dye inside. “so, why red?” he asked quietly, working on opening everything up.

“just bored of being blonde.”

“hm.” mingi hummed. “i think this red will be really cute on you. all red-velvety and pretty.”

 _oh_. 

“thank you,” san said quietly. now he _really_ couldn’t hide how he was blushing since it seemed to have captured mingi’s attention, and instead he focused on rereading the instructions even though he’s read basically the same words over and over again with different hair dye kits. 

after getting all of the dyes inside, mingi placed the cap back on and screwed it shut, before shaking the bottle with his index finger against the open tip of the cap. he continued to shake it, getting everything mixed up while he looked at san expectantly. “okay. get down on your knees.”

finally, san was able to grab the upperhand, and he grinned wickedly up at him before he then playfully whined out, “yes, _sir_ ,” and watched mingi’s face turn bright red.

mingi coughed and gave him a little shove in retaliation as he scolded him with, “i will pour all of the dye down the drain.”

san rolled his eyes, muttering out, “okay, okay, fine,” and did what he said, getting down on his knees and loving the slight blush on mingi’s cheeks and the irritated look on his face. it was such a polar opposite reaction, but san couldn’t help but laugh at it. it was truly amusing.

mingi stepped behind him, running his hands through his hair just for a quick second to make sure it wasn’t tangled - and it was such a calming feeling that san couldn’t help but fall in love with it.

after a moment, mingi finally squeezed some of the dye out onto san’s roots, and the realization that he knew couldn’t back out any further (unless he wanted red roots) finally set in. 

san ignored that thought, and rather replaced it with the fact that it was cold to the touch, and he shivered at the feeling of it.

“oh, it’s like… really runny—“ mingi mumbled as he squeezed out a little bit more onto his head. he then pushed the little bit of dye with his fingers and spread it across san’s roots as much as possible, before he laughed and said, “haha, it’s like… the color of ketchup. here, i’ll make you a ketchup crown.” 

san giggled at how ridiculous that statement was, finding it fucking hilarious -- maybe it was because it was late that he found it so funny, and his laughter only encouraged mingi to _actually_ do it.

he squeezed out more, but he probably accidentally squeezed too hard, because in a millisecond, some of the dye shot out from the bottle. most of it landed onto san’s shoulder, but from the force of the grip on the bottle, some landed onto the white cabinets underneath the sink where san was kneeling by.

they both paused, eyes wide, before mingi whined out, “aw man, my t-shirt…”

“oh shit,” san said, not wanting to look down but he ended up doing so, seeing splatters of red hair dye on the white wood. “mingi, the cabinets, we have to clean off the cabinets, seonghwa hyung will kill us if we don’t.”

“here, um… hold on.” mingi set the bottle of dye down on the sink counter and peeked his head out of the open bathroom door, immediately calling out, “yunho!”

“oh, _that’s_ a good idea!” san hissed, his eyes narrowing as he glared at mingi’s reflection in the mirror.

“yunho!”

san swatted at mingi’s leg. “oh my god, shut up! you’re gonna wake up everyone up! including yeosang!—“

he heard a faint _what?_ that made him shut up, and he was honestly glad that he could decipher that it was yunho’s voice and not anyone else’s (like yeosang, who was always grouchy when being woken up and happened to be sleeping in the _same room_ as yunho). 

mingi ignored san’s comments of shutting up, and instead, in the same volume, said, “come here real quick!”

“you know i could’ve cleaned it up,” san rolled his eyes, playfully swatting at mingi’s legs, “if you would’ve just moved your long ass legs—!”

yunho’s door opened and then closed, and immediately san could hear him shuffling toward them and scolding them. san looked over when yunho paused in the doorway, and he _so_ badly wanted to laugh at yunho’s reaction of seeing mingi’s black gloves and the top of san’s head covered in dye. 

(thankfully, yeosang hadn’t joined his boyfriend in coming out to see what was going on, so san was grateful for that, at least.)

“are you both insane?” yunho looked over at mingi, muttering, “why the hell were you screaming?” 

weakly, mingi asked, “could you get like some… clorox wipes or something from downstairs that will… um, clean up red dye, please?”

“oh my god, why?” yunho groaned tiredly, but when mingi just grinned at him, he just rolled his eyes and headed downstairs, and soon, san could hear him rummaging through the kitchen. 

“you’re terrible, i told you not to yell,” san bit out, swatting at his leg again for good measure. “anyways, i could’ve gotten it.”

“with what?”

“i dunno, wet toilet paper, maybe. or you could’ve gotten the clorox wipes.”

“yeah, good idea.” mingi deadpanned. “and besides, i have to finish doing your hair before it sets or whatever.” he immediately followed up on his point (despite being heavily based on bullshit) by evening out the red dye poured on his scalp, but san couldn’t find himself to be mad when the the feeling of mingi running his hands through his hair returned, even if it was coated with wet, smelly dye and there was a frustrated and tired yunho downstairs that was annoyed with them. “and you had a _lot_ of it on your head, i wasn’t kidding about the ketchup crown. you’d end up making more of a mess. or it could’ve gotten in your eye or mouth or something and then we’d have a lot more problems.”

“you could’ve done it.” san muttered, now hearing silence in the kitchen, save for the sound of yunho walking back toward the stairs. 

“you told me we had to clean it up right now, otherwise hyung was gonna kill us, and i don’t think if i took off my gloves that i’d be able to put them back on. besides, i don’t think rubbing away at something with dye or clorox on it while i have red dye on my gloves would be very… productive.”

“you just wanna piss yunho off sometimes,”

“well,” mingi snickered, “that too,”

and almost as if he were summoned, yunho begrudgingly walked back up the stairs, the clorox tube in hand. “you both owe me.” he said as he stood by the door frame. “what on earth are you doing?”

mingi blinked at him, and san held back laughter at his expression, since it was _so_ obvious what they were doing. “dyeing san’s hair?” he answered, a bit of a _duh_ tone in his voice - and yunho glared daggers at him that almost rivaled yeosang’s exhausted ones. 

“at one in the morning?” yunho asked, but his tone was flat, making it an accusatory sentence instead of a question. mingi huffed.

“hey, this was all san’s idea.”

“oh, thanks.” san rolled his eyes. well, it was true, but still. he didn’t have to rat him out like that.

“whatever. move, where is it?”

“on the cabinet.”

“ _and on my shoulder_.” san hissed out, pointedly glaring at mingi in the mirror. mingi rolled his eyes, moving to scoop up as much dye with his finger as he could, before spreading it in san’s hair. san tried not to giggle from how _ridiculous_ the t-shirt looked now - it looked like he had bled through the fabric.

“well, it’s actually on _my_ t-shirt.”

“shh, both of you, shut up before you wake everyone up.” yunho walked past mingi, heading over to san’s side where he sees the dripping red dye on the white cabinet. with a bit of a huff, he pulls out a clorox wipe and gets to work, cleaning the dye off.

“thank you, yunho,” mingi said in a singsong voice - something yunho ignored.

a notification then popped up on san’s phone screen and it almost scared him, since he thought it was a text from someone within the dorm -- but thankfully it was just an instagram notification. he placed it back on the counter and looked at mingi in the mirror again, smiling softly at him even though he was still annoyed with the whole cabinet thing. “can you please continue, min?” san asked after a moment, and mumbles out a _thank you_ when mingi nodded and started to _carefully_ squeeze out more dye to coat his hair. san rested his forearms against the edge of the counter, listening to the sound of yunho scrubbing away at the dye and focusing on the feeling of mingi’s fingers in his hair.

yunho finally broke the silence with, “so, why are you dyeing your hair at one in the morning and how did it end up on the cabinets?”

“because i’m bored, have weird impulses at night and make bad decisions constantly.” san answered simply. “and wooyoung wasn’t gonna use the dye at all and i’m tired of being blonde.” 

“you went blonde like… a week ago.”

“that’s what i said,” mingi muttered as he continued to pour more dye onto his head. san looked at his reflection in the mirror, finding him to be too focused on dealing with dyeing his hair, so he glanced back over to yunho again.

“i want to be red now.” san said, before he followed up on yunho’s other question. “also, it got all over the cabinets because it basically exploded everywhere -- because mingi, for some reason, had a death grip on the bottle when he was trying to pour dye on my head.”

yunho furrowed his eyebrows. “you don’t even need that much dye on your scalp, though.”

“ketchup crown.” the two answered together.

“i… okay.” yunho, confused and defeated, again started to scrub at the splotches on the cabinets as best as he could.

san sighed, content with the feeling of mingi continuing to coat the strands with the red dye - even if the smell of it was starting to get to him. they were both silent as mingi worked, and san watched him in the mirror until mingi quietly said, “head down. i need to get the back of your hair, down by the bottom.”

san obliged, and continued to listen to the sound of yunho scrubbing at the cabinet before he heard him laugh and say, “o-okay, so, i don’t think this is gonna come out. i cleaned up the dye but it like, immediately stained the wood, so.”

san snickered. “awesome.”

yunho tried again, but huffed and threw the clorox wipe in the trash can before standing up. “i’m like… very sure this won’t come out.”

“maybe no one will notice it?” mingi asked hopefully, glancing over at yunho before focusing back on san’s hair. even if mingi’s words were to calm everyone down, they all knew that it would be _way_ wrong. seonghwa _always_ noticed those things. 

“yeah. anyways, i’m going back to bed.” yunho said, squeezing beside them to wash his hands in the sink. 

“thanks, yunho,” the two said in unison once again, and he nodded in their general direction before he dried off his hands and headed back to his bedroom. san could hear the closing of his door, and finally he exhaled and looked at mingi’s reflection.

“you don’t think anyone will notice?” mingi asked, and san shrugged a shoulder as best as he could.

“maybe.”

“oh well.” mingi gently tilted san’s head to the left, pouring some of the dye onto his hair and coating his baby hairs by his ears, doing his best not to get his skin. “you know, this isn’t that hard, actually.”

“great. you’re gonna make all my hair fall out now.”

mingi grabbed and tugged sharply on a chunk of his hair. san winced, surprised he had even gotten a grip on it, but ended up blushing a bit. mingi completely noticed, unfortunately, and san knew that was just to get back at him for the whole _sir_ thing. “you wanted me to help you. i’m doing my best.”

“you are, minmin. thank you.” 

“mhm,” he said, quickly smoothing down the hair he pulled at. he tilted san’s head the opposite side to get the hair by his other ear before coating his hair thoroughly, running his fingers through his hair and making sure he had gotten every strand. he then stepped off to the side and said, “okay, i think i got everything.”

san inspected it in the mirror, a growing smile on his face. “i think so too.”

“how long do you have to sit with it on?”

“twenty five minutes.”

mingi hummed, awkwardly positioning his wrist in order to pull the faucet handle toward him, turning the water on without getting any dye on the handle or mirror directly behind it. he unscrewed the top of the bottle, filling it up with water, before san watched all the unused dye get poured down the drain.

mingi finished washing out the bottle before throwing it in the box, along with his gloves, and then he threw the entire box in the trash. he looked over at him, watching how he was setting a timer on his phone, before he asked, “what are you going to do while you wait?”

san shifted to get off his knees, and he ended up sitting on the floor while mingi sat down on the toilet. “you know you don’t have to wait with me,” san said quietly, glancing up at him. mingi pulled out his phone, pointing the camera right at him, and san shot him the middle finger. 

the camera snapped, despite mingi pouting and going, “hey! come on, lemme get a cute picture.”

san huffed, muttering out, “i can’t be cute when my hair is all covered in dye,” but gave in anyways when he said something along the lines of _you’re always cute_ and instead gave the camera a peace sign. mingi took the picture, grinning as he then lowered his phone, probably saving the picture to his camera roll. san pretended not to care. “we can use those to show wooyoungie that he missed out on a late night opportunity, because he’s _lame_.” he snickered, finding the idea amusing. he wondered what he was going to say to him in the morning, if he’d even know it was his hair dye, anyways. the box was shoved back pretty far in the storage closet, and san probably figured he had forgotten about it. 

“watch, now he’s gonna _want_ to dye his hair red.”

“oh yeah.” san sighed, “too bad he just dyed it black a few weeks ago.” he fell silent again as he then focused on his phone, opening up twitter and scrolling through it until he heard mingi yawn, shifting uncomfortably on the toilet seat. he found himself repeating himself from earlier, looking up at him and mumbling out, “you know you can go to sleep, right?”

mingi shook his head. “no, i wanna see how it turns out.”

“but you can see it in the morning?”

“san, all i have to do is wait until the twenty five minutes are up, and then some when you get out of the shower. i’ve been up for hours on end before, this isn’t the first time.”

san pouted. “it won’t even be dry or styled, though.”

“still, i wanna see how it looks.” and san knew mingi was _really_ stubborn on certain things, so much so that it would be hard to argue with him sometimes, and so he just sighed and watched as mingi then moved to sit closer to him. “i don’t know why we’re just chilling in the bathroom though.”

“i don’t want red dye on my white comforter.”

“just like how i didn’t want dye on my t-shirt?”

san pouted at him. “that wasn’t my fault, remember, because you wanted to make me a ketchup crown.”

“it _was_ a good ketchup crown,” mingi said, like he was blissfully remembering the time even though it happened not that long ago and it caused the cabinets under the sink to be covered in red splatters.

“and i appreciated it, until it got _everywhere_.” he leaned over to poke mingi’s nose again, sticking his tongue out at him. mingi rolled his eyes before he pouted and pulled out his phone, unlocking it and clicking on the youtube app. “and now seonghwa hyung is gonna kill us.”

“shut up and watch some funny youtube videos with me while we’re still alive, okay?” he said, leaning in just a little bit more and holding his phone out for both of them to see.

and san’s breath caught in his throat at the proximity between them. 

“okay, minmin.”

* * *

they had been quietly chilling in the bathroom the entire time, and surprisingly, no one had came in, but he supposed that had been because the light was on -- and any movement he heard came from near jongho and wooyoung’s rooms, which were closer to the other bathroom they had in the dorm anyways. 

after the twenty five minutes were up, san shooed mingi away to get him out of the bathroom, something he accepted almost immediately. he carefully, and awkwardly, got undressed and turned the water on. he hoped the running of the water of the shower wouldn’t wake anyone up or freak anyone out, and immediately got in to make this as short as possible. 

it was almost muscle memory washing out the dye in the shower, since he had done it so many times and it wasn’t even that difficult to begin with -- and yes, okay, he _might’ve_ stained the shower curtain with red splotches, but he decided it could match the cabinets.

god, seonghwa was going to kill him. at least shower curtains could be washed with bleach, though, so it wouldn’t be _too_ terrible.

he shampooed and conditioned his hair like the instructions told him to, and finished up in the shower since he didn’t want to be in there for long -- especially now that it was getting _very_ late and he knew someone would complain about him taking a shower in the morning.

mingi had told him not to look at his hair, since he wanted it to be a surprise and he had wanted to see it first (since he did it) and so he followed that, despite _really_ wanting to look at it. still, he got out of the shower and dried off, before putting his hair up in a towel wrap so he couldn’t see it in the mirror. 

with his hair effectively hidden beneath the towel, he got dressed into a tank top and a pair of shorts, something comfortable to wear to go to sleep in. he was about to put the towel he had used for drying off his body in the hamper when he saw a red spot on his shoulder in the mirror. curious, he looked at it and then down at the t-shirt still on the floor, where the red spot was stained into the fabric. he huffed and scooped up the stained shirt and the rest of his clothes, heading out of the bathroom and turning the light off, closing the door just a tiny bit to let it air out.

he walked back over to his bedroom, where the light was still on, and he opened the door - half expecting mingi to not be there, but was happily surprised when he saw him sitting down on his bed, messing around on his phone. he tossed the dirty clothes into his laundry basket in his closet before he asked, “are you ready to see it?”

“you didn’t peek, did you?”

he shook his head, smiling at how cute mingi was. “no, i didn’t, don’t worry.” 

san joined him on the bed, and mingi immediately, excitedly, scooted closer and reached forward to pull down his towel wrap. san watched him, listened to how his breath caught in his throat, and there’s something so… intimate about mingi being close to him, eyebrows furrowed and eyes concentrated as he used the towel to then rub his hair dry. it was completely unasked of him, but yet mingi had done it - and san’s heart swelled in his chest. 

(normally, they were always full of banter, especially when they’re both tired, but the moment had been so… soft and natural, san couldn’t help but melt when those moments occur.)

“oh,” san heard him say, hands and towel now lowered, and he was almost nervous. what if it ended up being bright red? the box said red velvet _and_ mingi had told him not to look, so he hadn’t actually gotten a glance at it.

san glanced up at him. “is it bad?”

“no, it’s…” mingi trailed off, cheeks a little flushed as he now realized the proximity between them, “it’s a really pretty color. like… a pretty, deep red color. there’s almost some violet in there.”

“that makes sense with the red velvet name.” san said, finally letting himself release the tension in his bones. “i thought it would’ve been like… a firetruck red. i guess i was just worried.” he then shrugged a shoulder. “oh well, as long as it’s not too bad.” 

mingi grinned at him, all while busying his hands and fiddling with the towel. “i told you it’d be all red velvety and pretty.”

“mingi, _stooop_ ,” san mumbled out, blushing, his ears feeling hot as he hid behind his hands. he could hear him laughing at him, feel him trying to poke and pinch at his cheeks, and they were still so _close_ that it made his head spin. san glanced back up to see mingi looking at him, too - eyes twinkling with adoration and san wanted _so badly_ to kiss him and hold him and make sure he _always_ looked at him like that.

“you’re so pretty,” mingi whispered out. and san really, really wanted to make a joke, to be his flirty and usual self and retort with something to make him blush tenfold, but he was caught in silence as mingi studied him. it was different being so close to him, but san definitely loved it; loved the look of his face, all bare and natural, loved the look he was giving him like he was just the most beautiful thing in the world, loved their closeness and how he was suddenly _very_ aware that mingi’s legs were touching his own. 

san, without thinking, leaned forward to kiss him, and he almost swears he can hear himself let out a small, content sigh as mingi moved to hold onto his waist. it had felt… natural to kiss him, since he did really, really like him, but he hadn’t expected to do it now especially when he had no idea of how mingi felt about him. it was a short, sweet little peck, though, and san was pulling away within a matter of moments, giggling a bit to himself despite his face feeling hot. 

“i honestly thought you were gonna kiss me first,” he admitted, “so when you didn’t move i did it instead, because i had wanted to for a while. i’m... i’m sorry i didn’t ask,”

mingi didn’t say anything, just laughed and moved to sweetly kiss him again, and that time san completely focused on the feeling of mingi’s lips against his own. it was another short kiss, and when he pulled away he saw mingi grinning at him. “you’re so cute, sannie.”

“you’re cuter, minmin.” 

mingi leaned forward to kiss his nose, before he started playing with the towel in his hands again, moving it off to the side after a moment. 

cheekily, san asked, “are you gonna go put that away for me?”

mingi rolled his eyes playfully at him before getting up, and san’s head spun when he was suddenly removed from the small bubble they had formed around themselves. mingi headed to the bathroom, san quickly following behind. he wanted to see his hair, and while mingi was throwing the towel in the hamper hidden in the bathroom’s storage closet, san had turned the light on and looked at himself in the reflection. he was right, it was a deep red velvet color, and san couldn’t help but feel giddy as he ran his fingers through his hair. it was _very_ pretty.

“i told you.” mingi said, slinging an arm around his shoulders. 

“i know.”

san then grabbed him by the hand and headed back toward his room - where he shut off the lights and haphazardly pulled mingi down on the bed with him. 

mingi, forever clumsy with his long arms and legs, almost elbowed him in the side and kneed him in the thigh when he fell down nearly on top of him - causing san to pout and hold onto him even tighter.

“that was rude--”

“it was completely on accident, you turned the lights off _and_ pulled me down with you.” mingi stuck his tongue out at him, before he leaned in to kiss san’s pout away. after a moment, he asked, “am i forgiven?”

“mhm, if you must be.” san said with a grin, keeping his arms around his shoulders. it was quiet for a moment before he whispered, “thank you for doing my hair at one in the morning with wooyoung’s old hair dye.”

mingi yawned, before moving to the proper place on the bed, and san followed, snuggling up in the covers with him. “anything for you, sannie.”

“yeah, yeah, now go to sleep so you can stop yawning,” san mumbled into the crook of mingi’s shoulder, hugging onto him tightly and finally feeling sleepy. mingi just complied, throwing an arm around his waist, and in minutes, they were both asleep, the soft pitter-patter of rain against the windows comforting to fall asleep to.

* * *

when they woke up the next morning, heading down to the breakfast table, san _definitely_ got a few head turns and questions asked — especially from wooyoung. most were about the red hair, but san could tell that a few of them were questioning the fact that he and mingi were holding hands, but he states, “i did it at like, one in the morning yesterday,” as he got his food and sat down at the table.

he ignored seonghwa’s grumble of, “that’s why there’s red all over the cabinets upstairs,” and yunho’s hushed laughter, instead looking over at mingi and mouthing out, _ketchup crown_. 

(san also ignored yeosang’s bitter comment of, “and the shower curtain,” because he’d rather focus on the sound of mingi’s wonderful laughter drowning out every sound instead.)

**Author's Note:**

> this was 10 pages long in google docs... 👀 hope you enjoyed ;; ♥
> 
> (also side note: sorry for struggling with the word "dyeing". dude i have no idea if that's even right, it doesn't even LOOK right)


End file.
